Each summer since 2004, Southern Illinois University Carbondale has played host to the Southern Illinois Music Festival, which presents dozens of performances throughout the region. John Hughes, who moved from Grosse Pointe to Northbrook, based many films of his in Chicago, and its suburbs.

Many people from other parts of the country were attracted to the state by employment caused by the expanding industrial base. However, opposition from affluent Illinois communities who objected to having to pay for the less well-off school districts (many of them Black majority communities, produced by redlining, white flight, and other "soft" segregation methods) resulted in the formula's abolition in the late 1980s. The Chicago State Cougars, from the city's south side, are one of only two all-sports independents in Division I after leaving the Western Athletic Conference in 2022.On the other hand, administration of recombinant IL-12 may have therapeutic benefit in conditions associated with pathological Th2 responses. Additionally, some studies have found that IL-17 plays a role in tumorigenesis (initial formation of a tumor) and transplant rejection. Illinois is vulnerable to tornadoes, with an average of 35 occurring annually, which puts much of the state at around five tornadoes per 10,000sqmi (30,000km 2) annually. McMahan CJ, Slack JL, Mosley B, Cosman D, Lupton SD, Brunton LL, Grubin CE, Wignall JM, Jenkins NA, Brannan CI (Oct 1991). Impaired interleukin-1 signaling is associated with deficits in hippocampal memory processes and neural plasticity".

The Quad Cities region, located along the Mississippi River in northern Illinois, had a population of 381,342 in 2011. Near the end of his term in January 2003, following a string of high-profile exonerations, Ryan commuted all death sentences in the state. Though Illinois lies entirely in the Interior Plains, it does have some minor variation in its elevation.S. states, Illinois has the fifth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth-largest population, and the 25th-largest land area. The Great Lakes are to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash and Ohio rivers to its south.